Pediatric Dentists in the Time of COVID-19 Pandemic; the Challenges and Burden

Moheb, Dalia; Nasr, Rania; Azab, Maha Moussa

doi:10.21608/edj.2020.51601.1370

Cited by 1 publication

(23 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…In this study, most of the participating pediatric dentists were female (86%) and only 14% were male, which indicates that the number of female pediatric dentists is higher than males in Turkey. Similar results were also reported by other studies [11][12][13][14]. In addition, the vast majority of participating pediatric dentists (87%) were young, between the ages of 20 and 40.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…This cross-sectional study, which assessed the knowledge, attitudes and practices of pediatric dentists during the COVID-19 lockdown period, is the first to be conducted among Turkish pediatric dentists and one of the first studies of its kind worldwide [11][12][13][14]. Additionally, this study revealed real-life evidence on the efficacy of the guidelines and protocols among Turkish pediatric dentists.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…In the study of Bekes et al [12], more than 80% of pediatric dentists specified all the factors related to close contact with the infection. In another study by Moheb et al [13], most pediatric dentists knew the droplet (92.6%) and direct contact (65.8%) modes, but only 34.2% identified the indirect contact mode of infection. Maru et al [11] reported that 66.7% of Indian pediatric dentists were informed about the transmission routes of COVID-19 infection.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…The present study showed that 55% of all participants attended a webinar on COVID-19. Previous studies [2,11,13,20,[27][28][29][30][31][32] showed the various rates of attendance of dentists at an education program on COVID-19. Contrary to these results, some researchers reported insufficient training [12,14,33,34].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, posting signs and posters at the entrance of the waiting room and in the areas visible to patients to provide instructions about social distancing, hand hygiene and respiratory hygiene measures was conducted by 81.8% of participants. Similarly, Moheb et al [13] reported that nearly 53% of dentists printed and placed patients' instructions for cough etiquette and social distancing. As another infection control measure, 60% of participants triaged dental patients by phone or online conferencing in order to obtain information on children's health and COVID-19 risk status, and to determine emergency dental problems in the current study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Clinical Experience, Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice of Turkish Pediatric Dentists during the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021

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Background and Objectives: “Coronavirus Disease 2019” (COVID-19) is a critical public health problem that has affected all fields, including dentistry. The dental management of children has become even more difficult during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the current knowledge, attitudes and practices of Turkish pediatric dentists who have been providing dental treatments to children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: After receiving ethical approval, this cross-sectional study was conducted using the Google Forms online survey instrument. An online questionnaire link was sent to all the members of the Turkish Society of Paediatric Dentistry by e-mail and through social media. Statistical analyses were performed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square test; a p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: A total of 200 pediatric dentists participated in this study and most of them (82%) only performed emergency dental treatments, whereas 18.5% performed both emergency and routine dental practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. The vast majority (72.5%) of pediatric dentists prescribed antibiotics and analgesics to their patients who were not cooperative with non-pharmacological behavior management techniques. The findings of the current study showed that the Turkish pediatric dentists had a good level of knowledge about COVID-19, satisfactorily conducted most of the infection control measures before and after the dental treatments, and attached importance to the use of PPEs; however, infection control measures during the dental treatments could be implemented better. Conclusions: Along with all precautions, the vaccination of healthcare workers and requesting a recent test result from patients showing a lack of COVID-19 disease before dental appointments could be used as effective infection control measures. Additionally, pediatric dentists should continue to follow local and universal guidelines, and education programmes should be frequently implemented in order to keep their COVID-19 management strategies up to date.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%